By the fall of 1780, Samuel Johnson was a 23-year-old Wilkes County backwoods farmer. With little formal education he depended greatly upon a keen sense of out door know how rather than upon his unusual ability to read and write. These fiercely independent backwoods people had been little threatened by the northern war of the American Revolution, now five years old. Not yet married, Samuel Johnson was eager to volunteer for militia duty when the call for able-bodied men was made. Enlisting in Captain Benjamin Cleveland’s Company of North Carolina Volunteers as a private in 1776, Sam Johnson was eventually promoted and awarded an officer’s commission.

After many years of fighting to a stalemate in the northern colonies, England had changed military strategies and moved an army under the command of British General Charles Cornwallis into South Carolina. Within weeks Cornwallis’ troops had overrun the entire state. It was this southern invasion that aroused the inhabitants of North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and western Virginia to gather a volunteer army to stop and eliminate the British threat in the south. Now four years later Colonel Benjamin Cleveland’s crude minuteman unit, consisting mainly of about 400 Scot-Irish descendents was again mustered for service. 23-year-old Captain Samuel Johnson from Wilkes County was one of those minuteman volunteers. Cleveland’s little brigade marched to an area called Quaker Meadows near where modern day Morganton, NC is located. Joining another force of over-mountain men hailing from valleys west of the Alleghenies, the combined strength of frontiersmen assembled reached approximately 1,600 strong.

For several days in steady rain this militia group followed one of General Cornwallis’ Loyalist Regiments numbering about 1,100 men until trapping it atop the crest of Kings Mountain, South Carolina. On October 7, 1780, about 3 o’clock in the after noon in a misty rain, this volunteer militia of over-mountain men formed in a horseshoe around the base of the mountain behind their mounted leaders. As they began to close the noose of the encirclement, Loyalist pickets began to skirmish. At that moment, a coordinated assault was launched. From the crest in their defensive positions the Loyalist rained down volley after volley of fire, but the densely wooded sides of the mountain provided the attackers with cover. As the militia clawed their way near the summit of Kings Mountain, the Loyalists now facing possible destruction charged from their positions with fixed bayonets. It was reported by witnesses of the battle that – Samuel Johnson, “rushed his men forward into the most dangerous and exposed position.” Amidst the chaos Captain Samuel Johnson sustained a bullet wound through his abdomen. There were, also, a number of bullet holes in the skirts of his coat. Wounded in action, Captain Johnson continued to issue directions and shout encouragement to his men without regard to his own safety. Another eyewitness reported that Captain Johnson’s immediate reactions upon enemy contact resulted in the successful accomplishment of his mission but not before 5 of his neighbors were killed in action. While the combat lasted approximately an hour, to one of the attackers, the mountain appeared, “volcanic; there flashed along its summit, and around its base, and up its sides, one long sulphurous blaze.” The violent description of the attack to secure the summit of Kings Mountain could be summed up as a complete victory for the volunteer militia. This combined force of over-mountain men volunteers had slain 225 Loyalists, wounded 163, and taken 716 prisoners, with a loss to themselves of 28 killed and 62 wounded.

During Samuel Johnson’s lifetime, he repeatedly said that the gun- shot wound to his body would have been fatal had it not been that for three days before the battle he had not eaten. Constantly on the move as they tracked the Loyalists to Kings Mountain, they did not stop and eat or rest. They consumed tack and water on the move. This deprivation resulted in the empty condition of his bowels and was therefore attributed to his escape from death and helped in a speedy recovery.

Samuel Johnson was married to Mary Hamon in Wilkes County on June 25, 1782. Soon after their marriage they settled on the headwaters of the Roaring River in what is now Traphill, Wilkes County, NC. They lived out their lives there and are buried on the old home place, in what is now called the Old Newt Johnson Cemetery. Samuel Johnson was 77 years old at his death. The Johnson’s produced nine children. The youngest, Rachel Walker Johnson, is my great-great-great Grandmother.

Various affidavits and testimonies on file in the Revolutionary War Pension files state, “Captain Johnson was known as a brave man, and most effective officer and soldier during the Revolutionary War. He was highly esteemed by the citizens of the country and entitled to distinguished consideration for his service.”

By: LTC Joe E. Harris, Jr., USA (Ret)

Great (4) Grand Son